Every summer, PSLawNet hires law students as part-time summer interns, who are also working at unpaid public interest placements. This summer we asked one of our interns to write about her summer work at Project Vote, as well as her plans for the future. Lauren Forbes is a rising 3L at American University Washington College of Law in Washington, DC, and she hopes to work in civil rights and voting issues.

This summer, I’ve been working at Project Vote as part of its 2010 law clerk program. Project Vote is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes voting in historically underrepresented communities. Through its research, advocacy, and direct legal services, Project Vote works to ensure that these constituencies are able to fully participate in American civic life by registering and voting.  While each citizen theoretically enjoys this right to vote equally, in reality, there are many obstacles to fully enfranchising the electorate.

Voting is a civil right. I came to Project Vote with interest in identifying and dismantling the barriers to voting, particularly for those who have been historically marginalized.  Over the summer, I’ve had the opportunity to conduct legal research, draft research memoranda, legal pleadings, and public education materials, as well as contribute to Project Vote’s Voting Matters blog.

I’ve devoted much of my attention to youth voting issues and high school voter registration.  In the U.S., one of the consistently underrepresented demographics, in terms of both registration rates and voter participation, is the youth population, or citizens between the ages of 18 and 30.  In recognition of this gap in representation, Project Vote is currently researching voter registration programs in high schools to assess the degree to which high school voter registration programs have been implemented, encouraged, or otherwise instituted at the city, county, or state levels.

On the advocacy side, I am aiding in Project Vote’s efforts to restore voting rights to former felons at the federal level. Currently, in all but two states, citizens with felony convictions are prohibited from voting either permanently or temporarily. The United States is the only country that permits permanent disenfranchisement of felons even after completion of their sentences.  Emerging from a patchwork of state laws that vary widely, the Democracy Restoration Act of 2009 establishes a federal standard that restores voting rights in federal elections to the millions of Americans who are living in the community, but continue to be denied the ability to fully participate in civic life.

I’ve taken classes that have directly prepared me to do this work effectively. In my first year, after taking Constitutional Law, I was drawn to its substance and analytical framework, particularly racial, socioeconomic, and sex/gender equality and justice.  I knew I enjoyed the jurisprudence of con law, and I thought pursuing civil rights coursework with field experience would aid me in determining what area of law in which I want to work.  Courses like “Current Issues in Civil Rights,” and “Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights,” provided me with helpful domestic and international rights-based frameworks.

I am also interested in advocacy and legislation, I thought it also might be helpful to supplement doctrinal study in justice issues with queries into the U.S. Congress and the legislative process. “Legislation and Statutory Interpretation” and courses like it focus on what the majority of law school classes do not–law and policy-making. Supplementing coursework with legal internships in the House of Representatives and the Maryland State Senate gave me a much more intimate glimpse into how legislatures work.